The present invention relates to a tablet crusher and more particularly is utilized to crush pills and other consummable tablets into powdered form so that the powder may be dissolved in liquid for easy consumption as required.
Some individuals who are required to take medication or some form of a tablet have difficulty in swallowing the tablet in whole form. Such individuals have usually resorted to the manual crushing of the tablet into particle or powder form, whereafter the powdered tablet is dissolved in liquid which can then be more easily swallowed. Some medications are actually manufactured by the tablet maker in liquid or powdered form, but this form of medication is not usually found in most types of medicinal products, and the individual requiring medication that is only available in tablet form has to resort to crushing the tablet if it cannot be consumed in whole form.
Prior to the instant invention, some efforts have been made to provide tablet crushers of the portable type for pulverizing tablets, pills or the like; and examples of this type of device are illustrated in the U.S. Patent to Jones et al, U.S. Pat. No. 2,602,596 and Tupper, U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,595. Both of the referred to patents include a receptacle of some kind in which a tablet or pill is received, a crushing member being insertable into the container for a rotating or grinding movement to crush the tablet into powder form within the container. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,602,596, the lowermost end of the crushing member is provided with a concave protuberance that engages the pills for crushing them into a suitable recess as formed in a lower cap member. In U.S. Pat. No. 2,892,595 the conical container as illustrated receives the tablets therein, and a correspondingly formed crushing member is received within the conical container and rotated to perform the grinding or pulverizing of the tablets.
Although these prior known constructions as illustrated in the above-referred to patents performed the function of grinding the tablets into powdered form to some degree, a complete grinding of the tablets was not always effected. In use of such devices, some larger particles would always remain unground after the initial grinding operation, and additional grinding movements of these prior known tablet crushers was required to effect a more complete grinding of the tablet for consumption by the user, and even then some portions of the tablet would not be completely reduced to powder form. Further, the construction of the pulverizing device as illustrated in the above-referred to patents was not easy to manipulate and considerable effort had to be exerted by the user to produce a completely ground tablet.
The present invention as will be described hereinafter avoids the attendant difficulties as experienced in the prior known tablet crushing devices and represents a unique and useful tablet pulverizer that is simple to use and economical to manufacture.
Other references of which applicant is also aware, that when combined with the above-referred to patents represent the best prior art known to applicant to which the subject invention pertains, are: U.S. Patents to Hollingsworth et al, U.S. Pat. No. 75,913; Paul, U.S. Pat. No. 2,572,378; Morgan, U.S. Pat. No. 2,631,786; Brantley, U.S. Pat. No. 2,726,816 and Roseberg et al, U.S. Pat. No. 4,121,775.